


A Beautiful Lie And A Bitter Truth

by KyeAbove, Ohaymikoto



Series: The Reinforcement Of Agony AU [9]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Character Death, Child Death, Death, Fate & Destiny, Major Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 20:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17925428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyeAbove/pseuds/KyeAbove, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohaymikoto/pseuds/Ohaymikoto
Summary: December 27th, 1911. Rural Arkansas. Agony:ConsumingWeep not dear child, for it must be this way; Weep not dear child, for life is this way; Weep not dear child, for death takes us all.





	A Beautiful Lie And A Bitter Truth

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of a different feeling of story for the series, but still the same sort of agony you're familiar with.

~December 27th, 1911~

* * *

 

"....and then the little wolf found his lost bone! It had been under his bed the whole time and now he was happy. The end."  
  
Jo shut the book with a content smile, despite not having read the book at all. He'd been using his vivid imagination and pictures from the book and brewed up a made up tale about a little wolf looking for his missing bone. Brought from his proudened mood, Jo heard a weak snort next to him, and turned his attention to Cas.

"That's not how mama read it..." The red haired boy mumbled tiredly, while he laid cuddled next to Jo. He'd found Jo's retelling of Little Red Riding Hood quite odd, but fascinating nevertheless.

"Well my version is special!" Jo defended. This made Cas smile even just a bit. He didn't have much energy to do much else. This cold was really taking a toll on him, and Jo didn't understand why. 

Josephine peered through the cracked open door. and smiled fondly at the two boys interacting, her foster son and her grandson, before returning to her kitchen. The snow wailed outside as a story as the night continued.

"Gramma Josie, will Cas get better soon?"  
  
Josie blinked and looked down at one of her many granddaughters. Marjorie, who was Jo's twin sister despite their set apart birthdays, stared up at her with big sad eyes. Josie smiled warmly at the overwhelming concern the two siblings had displayed for Casper, who'd fallen ill and had been for some time. He'd always been a sickly child, but this had Josie saddened. At least though the siblings has traversed the mounds of snow on their own to come over and cheer him up.

Josie had of course scolded them for running around in the current weather without adult supervision, but her scolding had been halfheartedly ignored.

"Very soon Jor. I'm sure of it will happen by day now thanks to you and your brother coming over to cheer him up." Josie felt her stomach churn at the lie. He wasn't getting better. He wasn't going to get better. Only worse. Josie had tried every spell and ever potion she could think of but none made her son's health pick itself up, like it usually did. Josie feared the worst was to come.

The clock on the wall chimed like an echo of judgement throughout the house. Josie felt a cold feeling wash over her body all of the sudden, and she shivered from cold and from fear. The cold was followed by the sound of a chain rattling.

Marjorie didn't seem fazed at all and instead yawned tiredly, so the shivering woman picked up her almost dosed off granddaughter and turned to doorframe of the kitchen from whence the rattling came to see a bone chilling sight. The woman's eyes lit up as her magic reacted.

The being she saw was a shadow in the form of smoke, no clear details on said being aside from a hourglass dangling from a rattling chain in it's hold. Josie held the now sleeping Marjorie with tears threatening to escape her eyes. She knew that being. For, many of her spell books had the being been featured, giving chills to those with magic running through their veins and bringing sleep to those that didn't. And in her grandfather's journals, this being haunted him until the day he died. 

Josie covered her mouth with a trembling hand. She knew the being's errand in her home and no spells at her disposal could keep it away. She pleaded wordlessly for more time...but mercy was not granted. She refused to weep for life was this way, but oh did she want to anyway.

Unknowing of the being in the house, Jo picked up another children's book, Jack and the Beanstalk, to base another story off of, choosing it despite not knowing the words on the cover. The young boy crawled back into bed with Cas who feebly leaned on Jo.

"How about this one nex...?" Jo suggested excitedly, but soon his words trailed off and a chill entered his small body. He shivered and huddled closer to Cas for warmth. He was not aware of his blue eyes glowing green. 

"Cas, is it colder in here?" But Cas gave no reply to Jo as he laid with his head on Jo's shoulder, peacefully unmoving. Jo gently shook his friend but still no response and the boy's fear began to take root.

Had his fever gotten worse? Sometimes fevers made people sleep suddenly, right?

"Cas? Cas what's wrong? Cas!" Jo gathered his red haired friend into his embrace and tried to make him stir, but he did not, and the rattling of a chain hit against Jo's ear like a haunting.

Jo looked away from his friend and saw a being, a smoke shaped shadow. The being drew closer to the bed where the two boys laid. Jo felt his bones rattle in a growing fear of the unknown being.

"Who...are you?" His voice trembled on his lips and a puff of mist slipped out of his mouth due to the being's freezing aura. The being did not answer the child and instead extended what might've been a hand...towards Cas.

"Don't touch him!" Jo pushed away his fear and batted the being's tendril then pulled Cas closer so Jo was shielding him with his own body. Jo knew he needed to be brave.

"Child of Magic, hinder not my affairs with this young one." The being spoke with a voice that was unidentifiable, neither masculine nor feminine, as the being was all and nothing. Jo shook his head and remained in the being's way.

"Who are you!?" He demanded with more force to his voice, mimicking how his father spoke to him whenever he'd done... _anything really._ If Jo could face his father, he could face anything. 

"I am something you should not yet have to encounter, I am the bitter truth, the bringer of clarity and slayer of illusions." The words the being spoke made absolutely no sense to Jo, who thought a name shouldn't be that hard to spit out.

"Then go away!"  
  
The being shook what might've been a head and showed the hourglass, it was pretty much almost full at the bottom. Jo did not understand the significance of the item.

"I can not, the young one has reached the end of her time and must now leave. I must take her soul with me. She being a child of magic, a witch of love, it is rather tragic, but it was her very fate."  
  
But Jo held Cas closer and glared at the being, his glowing eyes threatening the being to not venture closer. Jo had heard before of how people went away because it was their time. He'd figured out after a while that it meant they were never coming back again.

"Go away."

"It must be this way child. You cannot hinder it."  
  
"No!"  
  
The being lowered the hourglass. It didn't feel it could reason with the child. If it tried to claim the young one's soul the risks of the other child's soul being pulled away as well was high. A witch of healing. Holding a near dead child witch of love. Equal assets to world, as long as their cores remained uncorrupted. 

"You can't take Cas away! If he goes away forever then Gramma Josie will be all alone. Jor and I will not have anyone to play with. Cas needs to stay here!"  
Jo was trying his hardest to not let his tears fall. He needed to be brave and brave boy's didn't cry! That's what his ma said when his father was done with him, that is. 

"But she has no time left, no energy to continue on. Your friend cannot linger here." The being pointed out, and yet again showed the hourglass. The last few grains of sand trembled on the edge of falling down towards the sea of sand waiting at the bottom.

"No! I won't let go!" Jo promised with heavy tears cascading down his cheeks and he held Cas as hard as he could. He didn't want to lose his friend, he didn't want to be all alone when Marjorie and Aggie found husbands when they were adults. So much, Cas meant so much to him.

Jo's eyes glowed a brighter green. 

The being gasped in horror filled alarm as the child's magic enveloped the young one and started to enter his cold body. The sands inside the hourglass started to rise and fill up the upper half once more.

"No child! You must stop right now!"  
  
But Jo refused to hear the warning of the being until he'd unintentionally but emotionally poured as much as he could into Cas. He fell back tiredly while Cas just snuggled into him, fully alive once more,  blissfully unaware of the current circumstances.

"Child...you just made a grave mistake."  
  
Jo didn't care though and happily snuggled back. Happy for his friend responding once more.  
  
"You're evil, Cas is good. He stays."

"Child, you've disrupted the natural order of this world and it's inner workings! You've now cursed the young one."  
  
Jo looked at the being fearfully at the last statement. He'd cursed Cas? Gramma Josie said curses were bad. 

"An extended life is a cursed life. Living beyond the natural end brings nothing but pain and misery. Maybe not for a long time, but one day, it'll all come to a terrible clause." The being ranted on as it waved the hourglass around in a frantic motion.

"I just didn't want to lose him..." Jo said quietly. The being ceased the frantic motions.  
  
"The young one is now reliant on you and your magic. She's like a fire. Feed her wood and she'll burn on, but give her nothing and she'll slowly burn out."  
This time Jo understood what the being was talking about for the first time since the being had invaded the room.

"Then I'll feed him wood every day!"  
  
"Child...the illusion of living cannot be sustained forever and soon the truth of death will surround you."  
  
Jo blinked at this and the being finally turned to exit the room. The chill the boy felt started to go away and warmth soon returned as the being disappeared out of the room.

"The...illusion of living?" Jo repeated to himself, the phrase settling into his mind. For years to come.

Josie sat on the kitchen floor with Marjorie safely tucked into her embrace. As a witch she knew not to interfere with the being. It would lead to disastrous consequences if she did. She cried freely now for the son she knew was now no more and stared at the being as it yet again passed by the doorframe. Though she noticed the alarming lack of a glowing soul in it's grasp.

"An extended life is a cursed life..." The being echoed to her as it left the building, not to return for a long time. Josie cried uncontrollably as Jo entered the kitchen excitedly telling her about how he'd fought back against a monster that had tried to take Casper away,.Jo thought she cried in happiness but in reality...she cried for her son who was now cursed.

Death had entered the house that snow filled night. It had taken no one and left with ominous words of future tragedy, one day the child Jo would recall this night...and realize what a mistake he'd made.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, at age six Joey met Death and saved someone who grows up to be a monster.


End file.
